Portsmouth celebrates eclipse with community beach party
Portsmouth celebrated the eclipse with a gathering on Southsea beachfront
The people of Portsmouth came out to celebrate the eclipse this evening, sharing the historic event with their community.
Southsea beachfront was filled with people enjoying the warmth of the sun with barbecues, drinks and music.
Large groups of friends and families gathered on the pebbles to gaze at the solar spectacle, enjoying treats from the fish and chip shop and ice cream parlours along the promenade, and even snuck in a weeknight pint or two.
Next to South Parade Pier, fire dancers performed to enraptured crowds, throwing flaming batons into the air as the light dimmed.
Near The Pyramids, the dance teacher Salsa Katanga held a beach party, filling the promenade with Latin vibes and dancing couples. He even led a group dance, shouting for everyone on the beach to join him in sharing the beat. Every dancer could not stop smiling.
As it approached 7.14pm, the maximum coverage of the sun by the moon, the streets of Southsea fell darker, and the sky and horizon seen from the beach went almost a shade of lilac.
Many stopped and stared at what, for some, was a once-in-a-lifetime event; while another partial eclipse is due to happen in August 2027, the UK will not see as much coverage of the sun as we did today until 2081.
Lots of people were holding cereal boxes and cardboard tubes, fashioned to be homemade pinhole viewers. Eclipse glasses were like gold dust in the days and hours leading up to the event, with shops selling out as soon as they restocked, so pinhole viewers provided a brilliant and innovative solution to the problem.
The best part of the eclipse was not the main event however, nor the incredible atmosphere on the warm beach - it was the sense of community. Everywhere, people shared their glasses and viewers with absolute strangers; when I asked one lady what she was holding, her first reaction was to ask “do you want to have a look?”.
Across the beach and up towards Clarence Pier, people bumped into old friends, and made new ones - it was truly a joyous celebration, and one the community will remember for a very long time.